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SK Mishra appointed new ED chief; Karnal Singh retires

New Delhi, Oct 27 (PTI) IRS officer Sanjay Kumar Mishra was on Saturday appointed the new chief of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an additional capacity, a government order said.

Mishra, a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Income Tax cadre, has been appointed as the principal special director in the central probe agency and entrusted with the "additional" charge of ED director for three months.

His appointment as ED chief has been made "for a period of 3 months, or till the appointment of a regular incumbent, whichever is earlier", said an order issued by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).

Official sources said Mishra, posted as the chief commissioner of the Income Tax department in Delhi at present, has not been empanelled as an additional secretary in the central government and hence, has been given the top ED charge in an additional capacity.

He is expected to be empanelled soon and subsequently will head the ED in a regular capacity, they said.

The post of ED director is an additional secretary rank post in the Union government.

Mishra will take over from incumbent Karnal Singh whose tenure at the agency ends Sunday.

Singh, a 1984-batch IPS officer of Union Territories cadre, will complete an over three year tenure as the ED Director.

He had been credited with leading some high-profile investigation cases such as the VVIP helicopters case, cases against former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti, and the Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya money laundering investigations.

During his tenure, the central probe agency saw a phenomenal jump in registration of cases, attachment of assets and filing of charge sheets.

The ED, during this time, attached assets worth over Rs 33,563 crore, while these figures for 10 years between 2005-2015 was Rs 9,003 crore.

The new ED boss, S K Mishra, has worked in various capacities in the Income Tax department and has also served in the Foreign Tax division of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) that deals with cases of Indians holding stash abroad.

He has steered the department's probe in the National Herald case that involves the first family of the Congress party- the Gandhis - and a few other important assessment cases.

The ED enforces two major laws in the country to check black money-- the criminal Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).